From the official site (linked above): We have just been informed by an anonymous source that a new modified firmware-project is underway: Project PS3MFW.

There are several contributors, some of whom are well-known within the PS3 homebrew community but wish to remain anonymous. However, we were told that KaKaRoTo is playing an important role in the project.

The purpose of Project PS3MFW is the development of a customizable tool that creates modified firmware for Playstation 3 with many great features not available in current solutions. It provides a framework where each firmware modification task is an independent plugin with access to an API that facilitates the modification process. One important feature is that the project will be entirely open source, as opposed to every other MFW released to date.

The tool will be called “PS3MFW Builder”, and it will work in conjunction with several other utilities.

Project PS3MFW is an ongoing project; anyone qualified can contribute. A release of the PS3MFW Builder v0.1 is imminent.

Updates from KaKaRoToKS via Twitter: PS3MFW has ~65 customization options, the backend is robust and does a lot of checks, we tested almost every combination, on 3.15, 3.41 and 3.55 and tested it on over 15 different PS3 models, we had no bricks at all.

The "Task options" you see are just for the "clean video" task, each task has its own options that you access with the 'configure' button

FYI, in the screenshot, that "theme" option is just about the GUI theme, has nothing to do with the generated PUP.

For now the tool doesn't support 3.56, but it works and was tested on 3.15, 3.41 and 3.55. I will release more information later: ps3mfw.com

PS3MFW Builder v0.1 Features:

Options:

Show verbose debugging information

Disable log output

Custom PUP build version

If set, overrides the entire PUP version string

Prefix to add to the PUP version string

Suffix to add to the PUP version string

Tasks:

Add new icons to the XMB Game category

Patch LV1 Hypervisor

Patch package installer to allow installation of unsigned .pkg

Patch the Application launcher to allow running of unsigned application

What does Waninkoko's firmware offer that the other ones don't other than his first attempt created a lot of bricks?

While trying not to go offtopic of PS3MFW, I believe Jes03 summarized the benefits of Waninkoko's CFW vs others HERE. Of course everyone has different preferences, so what one user likes another may not.

This is impressive! Perhaps too impressive - what I mean, if you let this loose in the wrong hands, you can just imagine how many "I bricked my PS3" post we will have! But, I have hope - KaKaRoToKS and an0nym0us are not idiots. I don't think it will be released prior it being idiot-proof!!

Pity this might not be a solution for those on 3.56. The new security seems to be a bigger pain than initially anticipated. Only time will tell though.